Four US lawmakers or their spouses personally invested in Russian companies: documents
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- Russia's invasion of Ukraine has triggered massive economic sanctions by the United States and its allies.
- A few members of Congress or their spouses have, or recently had, stakes in Russian companies.
- Congress is actively considering whether to ban federal lawmakers from trading individual stocks.
Four members of Congress or their spouses have either currently or recently invested money in Russian companies, according to an Insider analysis of federal financial disclosure documents.
They include Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey; and the wife of Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, both of whom currently invest the stock of Russian companies, documents indicate.
Rep. Peter Meijer, a Republican from Michigan, and the husband of Rep. Susie Lee, a Democrat from Nevada, used to have Russia-related investments but said Monday they sold them in 2021 and 2020, respectively.
These investments come to light in the midst of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has prompted the US government to hit Russia with heavy sanctions and triggered boycotts of Russian products and culture, from vodka to soccer.
No law prevents members of Congress from trading stocks or financial funds listed on public exchanges, Russian or otherwise. But Congress itself is actively debating whether to ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks — a practice that lawmakers have long permitted for themselves — amid rampant violations of current financial disclosure laws and potential conflicts of interest.
"There's an obvious conflict of interest with members of Congress holding Russian stocks as the world coalesces around a program of sanctions to respond to Putin's mass murder campaign in Ukraine," said Walter Shaub, a senior ethics fellow for the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight and former director of the federal Office of Government Ethics.
"It's inexcusable, and it's not like members of Congress didn't have plenty of advance warning that this attack was coming," Shaub told Insider. "This is yet another example of why members should not be trading stocks."
Gottheimer owns up to $30,000 worth of American depository receipts in Lukoil, the Russian fossil fuels giant, according to his most recent annual financial disclosure. He most recently purchased up to $15,000 worth of American depository receipts in Lukoil on February 4, 2021, according to a federal filing.
Lukoil has endured targeted US sanctions since 2014. Given the war in Ukraine, it could face more from the United States or European nations. CNBC on Monday reported that Lukoil's president, Vagit Alekperov, is sailing his yacht from Spain to Montenegro as the United States and its allies mull sanctions on the property of Russian oligarchs with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Gottheimer also owns up to $15,000 worth of stock in Yandex, a Russian internet services company, earning up to $2,500 in capital gains from the asset in 2020, federal filings indicate.
"Prior to taking office, Josh turned over management of his portfolio to a third party and only receives statements of prior transactions," Gottheimer spokesperson Chris D'Aloia said. "All decisions related to buying and selling of securities are done so without Josh's approval."
Gottheimer, who owns dozens of different individual stocks, has not created for himself what's known as a "qualified blind trust" — a congressionally approved financial arrangement where a lawmaker cedes control of all or part of his or her assets to an independent trustee.
The terms of such qualified blind trusts, which congressional guidance states is the "most comprehensive approach" to avoiding "potential conflicts of interest or the appearance of such conflicts," are a matter of public record. Only a handful of federal lawmakers have established qualified blind trusts, which can be expensive and time-consuming to formalize.
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Trusts and family funds
Khanna's wife, Ritu Khanna, purchased up to $15,000 of Yandex stock on January 21, according to a congressional financial disclosure, which lists the value of assets in broad ranges.
The Yandex investment is part of Khanna's wife's family trust, established prior to their marriage, and it is "controlled by independent money managers," said Marie Baldassarre, Khanna's spokesperson.
"Congressman Khanna does not trade in any stocks, and he supports a ban on stock trading that applies also to spouses," Baldassarre said. "Khanna strongly supports the president's sanctions targeting Putin, the oligarchs, and the Russian government."
Meijer in 2020 reported owning up to $15,000 in Yandex stock among the many stock assets contained within a trust fueled by his family's chain of retail and grocery stores.
In a phone interview Monday, Meijer confirmed that the trust, for which he is the "sole beneficiary with no authority or advisory role" in it, dumped all of its individual stocks in early 2021, including the shares in Yandex. The trust has since reinvested those assets in exchange-traded funds, none of which target Russia-based investment opportunities, Meijer said.
Lee last year disclosed that her estranged husband, casino executive Dan Lee, owned shares in two Russia-focused exchange traded funds.
The congresswoman's annual financial disclosure, covering financial activity in 2020 and filed in August 2021, indicates he sold up to $100,000 worth of shares in the VanEck Russia ETF and earned up to $15,000 in capital gains that year from the sale. The fund "includes publicly traded companies that are incorporated in Russia or that are incorporated outside of Russia but has at least 50% of their revenues/related assets in Russia."
Dan Lee also sold a stake, worth up to $100,000, in the iShares MSCI Russia ETF, which "seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of Russian equities."
"These investments were in family members' accounts, including that of Rep. Lee's husband from whom she is separated, and were sold over two years ago. The family currently has no investments in these funds," Lee spokesperson Zoe Sheppard said.
Efforts to ban stock trades
Congress itself is actively considering whether to ban lawmakers and their spouses from trading individual stocks at all.
Insider's recent "Conflicted Congress" project found that 57 members of Congress, and at least 182 senior congressional aides, have in recent months violated the federal Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 with late or missing financial disclosures.
"Conflicted Congress" also found dozens of examples of members of Congress holding stock in companies that clash with their public responsibilities or stated orthodoxies or sat on committees that directly oversee the activities of companies in which they hold shares.
As part of the project, Insider created a searchable, sortable database of lawmakers' personal finances, including assets and debts.
The House Administration Committee, for its part, is poised to schedule a hearing on a congressional stock ban. President Joe Biden reportedly is considering addressing the matter in his State of the Union Address on Tuesday.
Meijer and Khanna's office told Insider that they both, in principle, support a ban or restrictions on members of Congress from trading individual stocks. Spokespeople for Gottheimer and Lee did not respond to the question of whether they support a congressional stock ban.
But in statements during the past week, the four members of Congress who've traded Russian investments have been uniformly opposed to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Gottheimer said that "Ukraine urgently needs the continued assistance of Western allies to hold off Russian troops from Kyiv — including additional sanctions by the U.S. to cut off Putin's revenue at the source."
Khanna called the invasion "a blatant violation of international law."
Meijer tweeted that "slaughtering civilians to gain negotiating leverage is a war crime, terrorism in uniform."
Lee last week advocated for the "most crushing of sanctions on Russia" in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
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